A LITTLE CHANGE OF FACE

Author: Lauren Baratz-Logsted ISBN: 0373895259 7/2005 CHICK LIT Publisher: RED DRESS INK

Stuck in her Danbury, Connecticut, condo in self-imposed exile until she's contagion-free, Scarlett Jane Stein keeps circling around to a passing comment her friend Pam made: how everything (read: men) comes to Scarlett just because she's attractive. Is it true? All her life she's thought that she was fun to be around, that people liked her. Was it only because she was pretty (say it—because she's got incredible breasts)? Or is Pam, tired of playing second fiddle, now playing her? All Scarlett knows is that she's never found the man she believes is out there, her One True Love. So maybe Scarlett needs to change things up. So it's goodbye, Scarlett, and hello, dowdier, schlumpier Lettie Shaw. And with her new look, new name, new home and new job, is there a chance that Letti-née-Scareltt will find someone who loves her for who she is inside? Or has Scarlett's little change of face turned into the biggest mistake of her life?

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

The idea behind A LITTLE CHANGE OF FACE has potential. A woman, at the strong urging of her best friend, goes from beautiful to ugly to discover if men like her despite her beauty. The idea has depth. People can relate to it, everybody wants to be loved for who they are.

Once you open the book, the idea falls apart. Baratz-Logsted’s writing is so tangential that you feel like you are being guided through the woods unsure of the beginning, middle or the end of the trail. The plot develops ever so slowly, with
extraneous amounts of frivolous background information that leaves you just as confused as the tangents.

The story picks up a little momentum once Scarlett Stein (main character) starts meeting men as the frumpier version of herself. However, that too fizzles out, once it becomes obvious that one man likes her and the other likes her cleavage.

The characters, besides Scarlett, are flat and not likeable. Scarlett’s so-called best friend, Pam, is the genius behind the make-you-dowdier scheme. She enforces Scarlett’s transformation with the iron fist of a Gestapo, all the while making
herself more gorgeous. Scarlett has to be completely obtuse not to realize Pam is jealous of her beauty.

Scarlett has another friend called TB which, unfortunately, stands for Token Black. Yes, she is the token black woman in Scarlett’s circle of friends. As if that name is not ridiculous enough, Scarlett and her friends talk in Ebonics while in TB’s company (TB is a lawyer and obviously uses Standard English). I am not even black and I found this offensive.

The book ends with an anticlimactic thud. Scarlett realizes she loves the man who loves her despite her ravenous beauty. However, they both have betrayed each other and neither one is sure they can forgive and forget. So basically you don’t know how the story ends, and that is the biggest disappointment of all.

Kendra Wheeler